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CHITRA 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 


NEW YORK - BOSTON + CHICAGO - DALLAS 
ATLANTA + SAN FRANCISCO 


MACMILLAN & CO., LimiTED 


LONDON +» BOMBAY + CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 


THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lt. 
TORONTO 


CHITRA 


BY 


RABINDRANATH TAGORE 


A PLAY IN ONE ACT 


Nem York 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1914 


All rights reserved 


Coprriaut, 1914 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 


Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1914. 
Reprinted March, twice, June, 1914. pena 


TO 
MRS. WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY — 


230401 


PREFACE 


Tuis lyrical drama was written about 
twenty-five years ago. It is based on 
the following story from the Mahab- 
harata. 

In the course of his wanderings, in 
fulfilment of a vow of penance, Arjuna 
came to Manipur. There he saw 
Chitrangada, the beautiful daughter of 
Chitravahana, the king of the country. 
Smitten with her charms, he asked the 
king for the hand of his daughter in 
marriage. Chitravahana asked him 
who he was, and learning that he was 
Arjuna the Pandafa, told him that 
Prabhanjana, one of his ancestors in 
the kingly line of Manipur, had long 
been childless. In order to obtain an 
heir, he performed’ severe penances. 
Pleased with these austerities, the god 

7 


8 PREFACE 


Shiva gave him this boon, that he and 
his successors should each have one 
child. It so happened that the prom- 
ised child had invariably been a son. 
He, Chitravaihana, was the first to 
have only a daughter Chitrangad& to 
perpetuate the race. He had, there- 
fore, always treated her as a son and 
had made her his heir. Continuing, 
the king said: 

“The one son that will be born to 
her must be the perpetuator of my 
race. That son will be the price that 
I shall demand for this marriage. You 
can take her, if you like, on this con- 
dition.” 

Arjuna promised and took Chitran- 
gada to wife, and lived in her father’s 
capital for three years. When a son 
was born to them, he embraced her 
with affection, and taking leave of 
her and her father, set out again on 
his travels. 


THE CHARACTERS 


Gops: 
Mapana (Eros). 
Vasanta (Lycoris). 


Morrats: 

CuitTra, daughter of the King of 
Manipur. 

ARJUNA, a prince of the house of 
the Kurus. He is of the Ksha- 
triya or “warrior caste,’ and 
during the action is living as a 
Hermit retired in the forest. 


VILLAGERS from an outlying district of 
Manipur. 


Note.—The dramatic poem “Chitra” has 
been performed in India without scenery— 
the actors being surrounded by the audience. 
Proposals for its production here having been 
made to him, he went through this translation 
and provided stage directions, but wished 
these omitted if it were printed as a book. 
9 


SCENE I 


! 


SCENE I 


Chitra 


Art thou the god with the five darts, 
the Lord of Love? 


| Madana 

I am he who was the first born in the 
heart of the Creator. I bind in bonds 
of pain and bliss the lives of men and 
women! 

Chitra 

I know, I know what that pain is 
and those bonds.—And who art thou, 
my lord? 


Vasanta 


I am his friend —Vasanta—the King 
of the Seasons. Death and decrepitude 
would wear the world to the bone but 


hs 13 


14 CHITRA 


that I follow them and constantly at- 
tack them. I am Eternal Youth. 


Chitra 
I bow to thee, Lord Vasanta. 


Madana 


But what stern vow is thine, fair 
stranger? Why dost thou wither thy 
fresh youth with penance and mortifi- 
cation? Such a sacrifice is not fit for 
the worship of love. Who art thou 
and what is thy prayer? 


Chitra 


I am Chitra, the daughter of the 
kingly house of Manipur. With god- 
like grace Lord Shiva promised to my 
royal grandsire an unbroken line of 
male descent. Nevertheless, the di- 
vine word proved powerless to change 
the spark of life in my mother’s womb 
—so invincible was my nature, woman 


though I be. 


CHITRA 15 


Madana 


I know, that is why thy father brings 
thee up as his son. He has taught thee 
the use of the bow and all the duties 
of a king. 


Chitra 


Yes, that is why I am dressed in 
man’s attire and have left the seclusion 
of a woman’s chamber. I know no 
feminine wiles for winning hearts. My 
hands are strong to bend the bow, but 
I have never learnt Cupid’s archery, 
the play of eyes. 


Madana 


That requires no schooling, fair one. 
The eye does its work untaught, and 
he knows how well, who is struck in the 
heart. 


Chitra 


One day in search of game I roved 
alone to the forest on the bank of the 


16 CHITRA 


Purna river. Tying my horse to a tree 
trunk I entered a dense thicket on the 
track of a deer. I found a narrow 
sinuous path meandering through the 
dusk of the entangled boughs, the 
foliage vibrated with the chirping of 
crickets, when of a sudden I came upon 
a man lying on a bed of dried leaves, 
across my path. I asked him haughtily 
to move aside, but he heeded not. 
Then with the sharp end of my bow I 
pricked him in contempt. Instantly 
he leapt up with straight, tall limbs, 
like a sudden tongue of fire from a 
heap of ashes. An amused smile flick- 
ered round the corners of his mouth, 
perhaps at the sight of my boyish 
countenance. ‘Then for the first time 
in my life I felt myself a woman, and 
knew that a man was before me. 


Madana 


At the auspicious hour I teach the 
man and the woman this supreme les- 


CHITRA 17 


son to know themselves. What hap- 
pened after that? 


Chitra 
With fear and wonder I asked him 


“Who are you?” “I am Arjuna,” he 
said, “‘of the great Kuru clan.” I stood 
petrified like a statue, and forgot to do 
him obeisance. Was this indeed Ar- 
juna, the one great idol of my dreams! 
Yes, I had long ago heard how he had 
vowed a twelve-years’ celibacy. Many 
a day my young ambition had spurred 
me on to break my lance with him, to 
challenge him in disguise to single com- 
bat, and prove my skill in arms against 
him. Ah, foolish heart, whither fled 
thy presumption? Could I but ex- 
change my youth with all its aspira- 
tions for the clod of earth under his 
feet, I should deem it a most precious 
grace. I know not in what whirlpool 
of thought I was lost, when suddenly 
I saw him vanish through the trees. 


18 CHITRA 


O foolish woman, neither didst thou 
greet him, nor speak a word, nor beg 
forgiveness, but stoodest like a bar- 
barian boor while he contemptuously 
walked away! ... Next morning I 
laid aside my man’s clothing. I donned 
bracelets, anklets, waist-chain, and a 
gown of purple red silk. The unaccus- 
tomed dress clung about my shrinking 
shame; but I hastened on my quest, 
and found Arjuna in the forest temple 
of Shiva. 


Madana 


Tell me the story to the end. I am 
the heart-born god, and I understand 
the mystery of these impulses. 


Chitra 


Only vaguely can I remember what 
things I said, and what answer I got. 
Do not ask me to tell you all. Shame 
fell on me like a thunderbolt, yet could 


CHITRA 19 


not break me to pieces, so utterly hard, 
so like a man am I. His last words as 
I walked home pricked my ears like 
red hot needles. “I have taken the vow 
of celibacy. I am not fit to be thy 
husband!” Oh, the vow of a man! 
Surely thou knowest, thou god of love, 
that unnumbered saints and sages have 
surrendered the merits of their life-long 
penance at the feet of a woman. I 
broke my bow in two and burnt my 
arrows in the fire. I hated my strong, 
lithe arm, scored by drawing the bow- 
string. O Love, god Love, thou hast 
laid low in the dust the vain pride of 
my manlike strength; and all my man’s 
_ training lies crushed under thy feet. 
Now teach me thy lessons; give me the 
power of the weak and the weapon of 
the unarmed hand. 


M adana 
I will be thy friend. I will bring, the 


world-conquering Arjuna a a . captive be-fete 


20 CHITRA 


fore thee, to accept his rebellion’s sen- 
tence at thy hand. 


Chitra 


Had I but the time needed, I could 
win his heart by slow degrees, and ask 
no help of the gods. I would stand by 
his side as a comrade, drive the fierce 
horses of his war-chariot, attend him 
in the pleasures of the chase, keep 
guard at night at the entrance of his 
tent, and help him in all the great duties 
of a Kshatriya, rescuing the weak, 
and meting out justice where it is due. 
Surely at last the day would have come 
for him to look at me and wonder, 
“What boy is this? Has one of my 
slaves in a former life followed me like 
my good deeds into this?” I am not 
the woman who nourishes her despair 
in lonely silence, feeding it with nightly 
tears and covering it with the daily 
patient smile, a widow from her birth. 
The flower of my desire shall never 


CHITRA 21 


drop into the dust before it has ripened 
to fruit. But it is the labour of a life- 
time to make one’s true self known and 
honoured. Therefore I have come to 
thy door, thou world-vanquishing Love, 
and thou, Vasanta, youthful Lord of 
the Seasons, take from my young body 
this primal injustice, an unattractive 
plainness. For a single day make me 
superbly beautiful, even as beautiful as 
was the sudden blooming of love in my 
heart. Give me but one brief day of 
perfect beauty, and I will answer for 
the days that follow. 


Madana 
Lady, I grant thy prayer. 


Vasanta 


Not for the short span of a day, but 
for one whole year the charm of spring 
blossoms shall nestle round thy limbs. 


SCENE II 


SCENE II 


Arjuna 


Was I dreaming or was what I saw 
by the lake truly there? Sitting on the 
mossy turf, I mused over bygone years 
in the sloping shadows of the evening, 
when slowly there came out from the 
folding darkness of foliage an appari- 
tion of beauty in the perfect form of a 
woman, and stood on a white slab of 
stone at the water’s brink. [t seemed 
that the heart of the earth must heave 
in joy under her bare white feet.) Me- 
thought the vague veilings of her body 
should melt in ecstasy into air as the 
golden mist of dawn melts from off the 
snowy peak of the eastern hill.) She 
bowed herself above the shining mirror 
of the lake and saw the reflection of 
her face. She started up in awe and 
stood still; then smiled, ‘and with a 

- 5 


26 CHITRA 


careless sweep of her left arm unloosed 
her hair and let it trail on the earth at 
her feet. She bared her bosom and 
looked at her arms, so flawlessly mod- 
elled, and instinct with an exquisite 
caress.) Bending her head she saw the 
sweet blossoming of her youth and the 
tender bloom and blush of her skin. 
‘She beamed with a glad surprise. So, 
if the white lotus bud on opening her 
eyes in the morning were to arch her 
neck and see her shadow in the water, 
would she wonder at herself the live- 
long day.) But a moment after the 
smile passed from her face and a shade 
of sadness crept into her eyes. She 
bound up her tresses, drew her veil 
over her arms, and sighing slowly, 
walked away like a beauteous evening 
fading into the night. To me the 
supreme fulfilment of desire seemed to 
have been revealed in a flash and then 
to have vanished. . . . But who is it 
that pushes the door? 


CHITRA 27 


Enter Cuitra, dressed as a woman. 


Ah! it is she. Quiet, my heart! ... 
Fear me not, lady! I am a Kshatriya. 


Chitra 


Honoured sir, you are my guest. I 
live in this temple. I know not in 
what way I can show you hospitality. 


Arjuna 
Fair lady, the very sight of you is 
indeed the highest hospitality. If you 
will not take it amiss I would ask you 
a question. 


‘Chitra 


You have permission. 


Arjuna 


What stern vow keeps you immured 
in this solitary temple, depriving all 
mortals of a vision of so much love- 
liness? 


28 CHITRA 
Chitra 
I harbour a secret desire in my heart, 


for the fulfilment of which I offer 
daily prayers to Lord Shiva. 


Arjuna 


Alas, what can you desire, you who 
are the desire of the whole world! 
‘From the easternmost hill on whose 
summit the morning sun first prints 
his fiery foot to the end of the sunset 
land have I travelled. I have seen 
whatever is most precious, beautiful 
and great on the earth. My knowledge 
shall be yours, only say for what or 
for whom you seek. } 


Chitra 


He whom I seek is known to all. 


Arjuna 
Indeed! Who may this favourite of 


CHITRA 29 


the gods be, whose fame has captured 
your heart? 
Chitra 


Sprung from the highest of all royal 
houses, the greatest of all heroes is he. 


Arjuna 


Lady, offer not such wealth of beauty 
as is yours on the altar of false reputa- 
tion. “Spurious fame spreads from 
tongue to tongue like the fog of the 
early dawn before the sun rises.) Tell 
me who in the highest of kingly lines 
is the supreme hero? 


Chitra 
Hermit, you are jealous of other 
men’s fame. Do you not know that 
all over the world the royal house of 
the Kurus is the most famous? 


Arjuna 
The house of the Kurus! 


30 CHITRA 
Chitra 


And have you never heard of the 
greatest name of that far-famed house? 


Arjuna 


From your own lips let me hear it. 


Chitra 


Arjuna, the conqueror of the world. 
I have culled from the mouths of the 
multitude that imperishable name and 
hidden it with care in my maiden heart} 
Hermit, why do you look perturbed? 
Has that name only a deceitful glitter? 
Say so, and I will not hesitate to break 
this casket of my heart and throw the 
false gem to the dust. 


Arjuna 


Be his name and fame, his bravery 
and prowess false or true, for mercy’s 
sake do not banish him from your 


CHITRA 31 


heart—for he kneels at your feet even 
now. 


Chitra 


You, Arjuna! 


Arjuna 


Yes, I am he, the love-hungered 
guest at your door. 


Chitra 


Then it is not true that Arjuna has 
taken a vow of chastity for twelve 
long years? 


Arjuna 


But you have dissolved my vow 
even as the moon dissolves the night’s 
vow of obscurity. 


Chitra 


Oh, shame upon you! What have 
you seen in me that makes you false 


ae CHITRA 


to yourself? _Whom do you seek in 
these dark eyes, in these milk-white 
arms, if you are ready to pay for her 
the price of your probity? Not my 
true self, I know.) Surely this cannot 
be love, this is’ not man’s highest 
homage to woman! Alas, that this 
frail disguise, the body, should make 
one blind to the light of the deathless 
spirit! Yes, now indeed, I know, 
Arjuna, the fame of your heroic man- 
hood is false. 


Arjuna 


Ah, I feel how vain is fame, the 


pride of prowess! Everything seems to 
me a dream. You alone are perfect} 
you are the wealth of the world, the 
end of all poverty, the goal of all 
efforts, the one woman! Others there 
are who can be but slowly known. 
While to see you for a moment is to 
see perfect completeness once and for 
ever. 


eee IR = is a 
an aR pa a be ot 


CHITRA 33 


Chitra 


Alas, it is not I, not I, Arjuna! It 
is the deceit of a god. Go, go, my 
hero, go. Woo not falsehood, offer 
not your great heart to an illusion. 


Go. 


SCENE III 


SCENE III 


Chitra 


No, impossible. To face that fer- 
vent gaze that almost grasps you like 
clutching hands of the hungry spirit 
within; to feel his heart struggling to 
break its bounds urging its passionate 
cry through the entire body—and then 
to send him away like a beggar—no, 
impossible. 


Enter MADANA and VASANTA. 


Ah, god of love, what fearful flame is 
this with which thou hast enveloped 
me! I burn, and I burn whatever I 
touch. 


Madana 


I desire to know what happened 


last night. 
37 


38 CHITRA 
Chitra 


At evening I lay down on a grassy 
bed strewn with the petals of spring 
flowers, and recollected the wonderful 
praise of my beauty I had heard from 
Arjuna;—drinking drop by drop the 
honey that I had stored during the 
long day. (The history of my past 
life like that of my former existences 
was forgotten. I felt like a flower, 
which has but a few fleeting hours to 
listen to all the humming flatteries 
‘and whispered murmurs)of the wood-— 
Tands and then must lower its eyes 
from the sky, bend its head and at a 
breath give itself up to the dust with- 
out a cry, thus ending the short story. 
of a perfect moment that has neither 
past nor future. 


Vasanta 


A limitless /life of glory can bloom 
and spend itself in a morning. 


CHITRA 39 
Madana 


Like .an endless meaning in the 
narrow span of a song. 


Chitra 


The southern breeze caressed me to 
sleep. From the flowering Malati 
bower overhead silent kisses dropped 
over my body. On my hair, my 
breast, my feet, each flower chose a 
bed to die on. I slept. And, sud- 
denly in the depth of my sleep, I felt 
as if some intense eager look, like 
tapering fingers of flame, touched my 
slumbering body. I started up and 
saw the Hermit standing before me. 
The moon had moved to the west, 
fpeering through the leaves to espy 
‘this wonder of divine art wrought in 
a fragile human frame. The air was 
heavy with perfume; the silence of 
the night was vocal with the chirping 
of crickets;\the reflections of the trees 


40 CHITRA 


hung motionless in the lake; and with 
his staff in his hand he stood, tall 
and straight and still, like a forest 
tree. It seemed to me that I had, 
on opening my eyes, died to all reali- 
ties of life and undergone a dream birth 
into a shadow land.) Shame slipped 
to my feet like loosened clothes. I 
heard his call—*‘Beloved, my most 
beloved!’’ And all my forgotten lives 
united as one and responded to it. 
I said, “‘Take me, take all I am!” 
And I stretched out my arms to him. 
The moon set behind the trees. One cur- 
tain of darkness covered all. Heaven 
and earth, time and space, pleasure and 
pain, death and life merged together in 
an unbearable ecstasy.). . . With the 
first gleam of light, the first twitter 
of birds, I rose up:and sat leaning on 
my left arm. He lay asleep with a 
vague smile about his lips like the 
crescent moon in the morning. The 
rosy red glow of the dawn fell upon 


CHITRA Al 


his noble forehead. I sighed and 
stood up. I drew together the leafy 
lianas to screen the streaming sun 
from his face. I looked about me and 
saw the same old earth. I remembered 
what I used to be, and ran and ran 
like a deer afraid of her own shadow, 
through the forest path strewn with 
shephali flowers.. I found a lonely 
nook, and sitting down covered my 
face with both hands, and tried to 
weep and cry. But no tears came to 
my eyes. | 
Madana 

Alas, thou, daughter of mortals! I 
stole from the divine storehouse the 
fragrant wine of heaven, filled: with 
it one earthly night to the brim, and 
placed it in thy hand .to drink—yet 
still I hear this cry of anguish! 


Chitra [bitterly] 
Who drank it? The rarest com- 
pletion of life’s desire, the first union 


AQ CHITRA 


of love was proffered to me, but was 
wrested from my grasp? This bor- 
rowed beauty,/this falsehood that en- 
wraps me,) will slip from me taking 
with it the only monument of that 
sweet union, /as the petals fall from 
an overblown flower; and the woman 
ashamed of her naked poverty will 
sit weeping day and night. Lord Love, 
this cursed appearance companions me 
like a demon robbing me of all the 
prizes of love—all the kisses for which 
my heart is athirst. 


Madana 


Alas, how vain thy single night had 
been! The barque of joy came in 
sight, but the waves. would not let it 
touch the shore. | 


Chitra 
Heaven came so close to my hand 
that I forgot for a moment that it 


“ 


CHITRA 43 


had not reached me. But when I 
woke in the morning from my dream 
I found that my body had become my 
own rival. It is my hateful task to 
deck her every day, to send her to my 
beloved and see her caressed by him. 
O god, take back thy boon! 


Madana 


But if I take it from you how can 
you stand before your lover? To 
snatch away the cup from his lips 
when he has scarcely drained his first 
draught of pleasure, would ’not that 
be cruel? With what resentful anger 
he must regard thee,then? 


Chitra 
That would be better far than this. 
I will reveal my true self to him, ‘a 
nobler thing than this disguise.) If 
he rejects it, if he spurns me and breaks 


my heart, I will bear even that in 
silence. 


44, CHITRA 


Vasanta 


Listen to my advice. When ,with 
the advent of autumn the flowering 
season is over then comes the triumph 
of fruitage. A time will come of itself, 
when the heat-cloyed bloom of the 
body will droop and, Arjuna will gladly 
accept the abiding fruitful truth in 
thee. O child, go back to thy mad 
festival. 


SCENE IV 


SCENE IV 


Chitra 


Wuy do you watch me like that, 
my warrior? 


Arjuna 


I watch how you weave that gar- 
land. Skill and grace, the twin brother 
and sister, are dancing playfully on 
your finger tips. I am watching and 
thinking. 

Chitra 


What are you thinking, sir? 


Arjuna 


I am thinking that you, with this 
same lightness of touch and sweetness, 
are weaving my days of exile into an 
immortal wreath, to crown me when 


I return home. 
AT 


4S CHITRA 
Chitra — 
Home! But this love is not for a 


home! 
Arjuna 


Not for a home? 


Chitra 


No. Never talk of that. Take to 
your home what is abiding and strong. ~ 
Leave the little wild flower where it 
was born; leave it beautifully to die 
at the day’s end among all fading 
blossoms and decaying leaves.\; Do 
not take it to your palace hall to fling 
it on the stony floor which knows no 
pity for things that fade and are 
forgotten. 

Arjuna 


Is ours that kind of love? 


Chitra 


Yes, no other! Why regret it? That 
which was meant for idle days should 


CHITRA 49 


never outlive them. Joy turns into 
pain when the door by which it should 
depart is shut against it. Take it and 
keep it as long as it lasts. Let not 
the satiety of your evening claim 
more than the desire of your morning 
could earn.)... The day is done. 
Put this garland on. I am tired. 
Take me in your arms, my love. Let 
all vain bickerings of discontent die 
away at the sweet meeting of our 
lips. 
Arjuna 


Hush! Listen, my beloved, the 
sound of prayer bells from the distant 
village temple steals upon the evening 
air across the silent trees! 


SCENE V 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY OF {LLINOIS 
AT URBANA- CHAMPAIGN 


SCENE V 


Vasanta 


I cannot keep pace with thee, my 
friend! I am tired. It is a hard task 
to keep alive the fire thou hast kindled. 
Sleep overtakes me, the fan drops 
from my hand, and cold ashes cover 
the glow of the fire. I start up again 
from my slumber and with all my 
might rescue the weary flame. But 
this can go on no longer. 


Madana 


I know, thou art as fickle as a child. 
Ever restless is thy play in heaven 
and on earth. Things that thou for 
days buildest up with endless detail 
thou dost shatter in a moment with- 

53 


5A CHITRA 


out regret. But this work of ours is 
nearly finished. Pleasure-winged days 
fly fast, and the year, almost at its 
end, swoons in rapturous bliss. 


SCENE VI 


“SCENE VI 


Arjuna 


I WOKE in the morning and found 
that my dreams had distilled a gem. 
I have no casket to inclose it, no 
king’s crown whereon to fix it, no 
chain from which to hang it, and yet 
have not the heart to throw it away. 
My Kshatriya’s right arm, idly occu- 
pied in holding it, forgets its duties. 


Enter CuHiITrRa. 


Chitra 
Tell me your thoughts, sir} 


Arjuna 


My mind is busy with thoughts of 
hunting to-day. See, how the rain 
pours in torrents and fiercely beats 
upon the hillside. The dark shadow 

57 


58 CHITRA 


of the clouds hangs heavily over the 
forest, and the swollen stream, like 
reckless youth, overleaps all barriers 
with mocking laughter. On such rainy 
days we five brothers would go to the 
Chitraka forest to chase wild beasts. 
Those were glad times. Our hearts 
danced to the drumbeat of rumbling 
clouds. The woods resounded with 
the screams of peacocks. ‘Timid deer 
could not hear our approaching steps 
for the patter of rain and the noise 
of waterfalls; the leopards would leave 
their tracks on the wet earth, betray- 
ing their lairs. Our sport over, we 
dared each other to swim across turbu- 
lent streams on our way back home. 
The restless spirit is on me. I long 
to go hunting. 


Chitra 


First run down the quarry you are 
now following. Are you quite certain 
that the enchanted deer you pursue 


CHITRA 59 


must needs be caught? No, not yet. 
‘Like a dream the wild creature eludes 
you when it seems most nearly yours. 
Look how the wind is chased by the 
mad rain that discharges a thousand 
arrows after it. Yet it goes free and 
unconquered. Our sport is like that, 
my love! You give chase to the 
fleet-footed spirit of beauty, aiming 
at her every dart you have in your 
hands. Yet this magic deer runs ever 
free and untouched. 


Arjuna 


My love, have you no home where 
kind hearts are waiting for your re- 
turn? A home which you once made 
sweet with your gentle service and 
whose light went out when you left 
it for this wilderness? 


Chitra 


Why these questions? Are the hours 
of unthinking pleasure over? Do you 


60 CHITRA 


not know that I am no more than what 
you see before you? For me there is 
no vista beyond. The dew that hangs 
on the tip of a Kinsuka petal has 
neither name nor destination. It offers 
no answer to any question. She whom 
you love is like that perfect bead of 
dew. 
Arjuna 


Has she no tie with the world? 
Can she be merely like a fragment of 
heaven dropped on the earth through 
the carelessness of a wanton god? 


Chitra 
Yes. 


Arjuna 


Ah, that is why I always seem about 
to lose you. My heart is unsatisfied, 
my mind knows no peace. Come 
closer to me, unattainable one! Sur- 
render yourself to the bonds of name 
and home and parentage. Let my 


CHITRA 6] 


heart feel you on all sides and live with 
you in the peaceful security of love. 


Chitra 


Why this vain effort to catch and 
keep the tints of the clouds, the dance 
of the waves, the smell of the flowers? 


Arjuna 


Mistress mine, do not hope to pacify 
love with airy nothings. Give me 
something to clasp, something that 
can last longer than pleasure, that 
can endure even through suffering. 


Chitra 


Hero mine, the year is not yet full, 
and you are tired already! Now I 
know that it is Heaven’s blessing that 
has made the flower’s term of life 
short. Could this body of mine have 
drooped and died with the flowers of 
last spring it surely would have died 


62 CHITRA 


with honour. Yet, its days are num- 
bered, my love. Spare it not, press 
it dry of honey, for fear your beggar’s 
heart come back to it again and again 
with unsated desire, like a thirsty bee 
when summer blossoms lie dead in 
the dust. 


SCENE VII 


SCENE VII 


Madana 
To-NIGHT is thy last night. 


Vasanta 


The loveliness of your body will 
return to-morrow to the inexhaustible 
stores of the spring. The ruddy tint 
of thy lips freed from the memory of 
Arjuna’s kisses, will bud anew as a 
pair of fresh asoka leaves, and the 
soft, white glow of thy skin will be 
born again in a hundred fragrant jas- 
mine flowers. 


Chitra 


O gods, grant me this my prayer! 


To-night, in its last hour let my beauty 
65 


66 CHITRA 


flash its brightest, like the final flicker 
of a dying flame. 


Madana 
Thou shalt have thy wish. 


- SCENE VIII 


SCENE VIII 


Villagers 


Wao will protect us now? 


Arjuna 


Why, by what danger are you threat- 
ened? 


Villagers 


The robbers are pouring from the 
northern hills like a mountain flood 
to devastate our village. 


Arjuna 


Have you in this kingdom no warden? 


Villagers 


Princess Chitra was the terror of 


all evil doers. While she was in this 
69 


70 CHITRA 


happy land we feared natural deaths, 
but had no other fears. Now she has 
gone on a pilgrimage, and none knows 
where to find her. 


Arjuna 
Is the warden of this country a 
woman? 
Villagers 
Yes, she is our father and mother 
in one. | 
[Exeunt. 
Enter CHITRA. 


Chitra 
Why are you sitting all alone? 


Arjuna | 
I am trying to imagine what kind 
of woman Princess Chitra may be. I 
hear so many stories of her from all 
sorts of men. 


CHITRA 71 


Chitra 


Ah, but she is not beautiful. She 
has no such lovely eyes as mine, dark 
as death. She can pierce any target 
she will, but not our hero’s heart. 


Arjuna 


They say that in valour she is a 
man, and a woman in tenderness. 


Chitra 

That, indeed, is her greatest mis- 
fortune. ° When a woman is merely a 
woman; when she winds herself round 
and round men’s hearts with her smiles 
and sobs and services and caressing 
endearments; then she is happy. Of 
what use to her are learning and great 
achievements?) Could you have seen 
her only yesterday in the court of the 
Lord Shiva’s temple by the forest 
path, you would have passed by with- 
out deigning to look at her. But have 


72 CHITRA 


you grown so weary of woman’s beauty 
that you seek in her for a man’s 
strength? 

With green leaves wet from the spray 
of the foaming waterfall, I have made 
our noonday bed in a cavern dark as 
night. ‘There the cool of the soft green 
mosses thick on the black and drip- 
ping stone, kisses your eyes to sleep. 
Let me guide you thither. 


Arjuna 


Not to-day, beloved. 


Chitra 
Why not to-day? 


Arjuna 


I have heard that a horde of robbers 
has neared the plains. Needs must 
I go and prepare my weapons to pro- — 
tect the frightened villagers. 


CHITRA’: 73 
Chitra 


You need have no fear for them. 
Before she started on her pilgrimage, 
Princess Chitra had set strong guards 
at all the frontier passes. 


Arjuna 


Yet permit me for a short while to 
set about a Kshatriya’s work. With 
new glory will I ennoble this idle arm, 
and make of it a pillow more worthy 
of your head. 


Chitra 


What if I refuse to let you go, if I 
keep you entwined in my arms? Would 
you rudely snatch yourself free and 
leave me? Go then! But you must 
know that the liana, once broken in 
two, never joins again.» Go, if your 

thirst is quenched. But, if not, then 
remember that the goddess of pleasure 
is fickle, and waits for no man. Sit 


74 CHITRA 


for a while, my lord! Tell me what 
uneasy thoughts tease you. Who occu- 
pied your mind to-day? Is it Chitra? 


Arjuna 


Yes, it is Chitra. I wonder in ful- 
filment of what vow she has gone on 
her pilgrimage. Of what could she 
stand in need? 


Chitra 
Her needs? Why, what has she 


ever had, the unfortunate creature? 
Her very qualities are as prison walls, 
shutting her woman’s heart in a bare 
cell. She is obscured, she is unful- 
filled. _Her womanly love must con- 
tent itself dressed in rags; beauty is 
denied her. She is like the spirit of 
a cheerless morning, sitting upon the 
stony mountain peak, all her light 
blotted out by dark clouds.) Do not 
ask me of her life. It will never sound 
sweet to man’s ear. 


CHITRA 75 


Arjuna 


I am eager to learn all about her. 
I am like a traveller come to a strange 
city at midnight. (Domes and towers 
and garden-trees look vague and shad- 
owy, and the dull moan of the sea 
comes fitfully through the silence of 
sleep: Wistfully he waits for the 
morning to reveal to him all the 
strange wonders. Oh, tell me her 
story. 


Chitra 
What more is there to tell? 


Arjuna 


I seem to see her, in my mind’s 
eye, riding on a white horse, proudly 
holding the reins in her left hand, and 
in her right a bow, and like the God- 
dess of Victory dispensing glad hope 
all round her. ‘ Like a watchful lioness 
she protects the litter at her dugs 


76 CHITRA 


with a fierce love. Woman’s arms, 
though adorned with naught but un- 
fettered strength, are beautiful!) My 
heart is restless, fair one, like a serpent 

reviving from his long winter’s sleep. — 


_-Come, let us both race on swift horses 


~ side by side,/like twin orbs of light 
sweeping through space.) Out from 
this slumbrous prison of green gloom, 
this dank, dense cover of perfumed 
intoxication, choking breath. 


Chitra 


Arjuna, tell me true, if, now at 
once, by some magic I could shake 
myself free from this voluptuous soft- 
ness, this timid bloom of beauty shrink- 
ing from the rude and healthy touch 
of the world, and fling it from my body 
like borrowed clothes, would you be 
able to bearit? If I/stand up straight 
and strong with the strength of a 
daring heart spurning the wiles and 
arts of twining weakness, if I) hold 


CHITRA 77 


my head high like a tall young moun- 
tain fir, no longer trailing in the dust 
like a liana, shall I then appeal to 
man’s eye? No, no, you could not 
endure it. It is better that I should 
keep spread about me all the dainty 
playthings of fugitive youth, and wait 
for you in patience. When it pleases 
you to return, I will smilingly pour 
out for you the wine of pleasure .in 
the cup of this beauteous body. (When 
you are tired and satiated with this 
wine, you can go to work or play; 
and when I grow old I will accept 
humbly and gratefully whatever corner 
is left for me.) Would it please your , 
heroic soul if the playmate of the | 
night aspired to be the helpmeet of 
the day, if the left arm learnt to share 
the burden of the proud right arm. 


Arjuna 


I never seem to know you aright. 
You seem to me like a goddess hidden 


78 CHITRA 


within a golden image. I cannot touch 
you, I cannot pay you my dues in 
return for your priceless gifts. Thus 
my love is incomplete. { Sometimes in 
the enigmatic depth of your sad look, 
in your playful words mocking at 
their own meaning, I gain glimpses 
of a being trying to rend asunder the 
languorous grace of her body, to emerge 
in a chaste fire of pain through a 
vaporous veil of smiles. Illusion is the 
first appearance of Truth. She ad- 
vances towards her lover in disguise. 
But a time comes when she throws 
off her ornaments and veils and stands 
clothed in naked dignity.) I grope for 
that ultimate you, that bare simplicity 
of truth. 

Why these tears, my love? Why 
cover your face with your hands? 
Have I pained you, my darling? For- 
get what I said. I will be content 
with the present. Let each separate 
moment of beauty come to me like 


CHITRA 79 


a bird of mystery from its unseen 
nest in the dark bearing a message of 
music. ) Let me for ever sit with my 
hope on the brink of its realization, 
and thus end my days. 


a ae 
+ Po 
Us,’ 


SCENE IX 


f ¢ ’ f re Ne het Pa i 
We WT RAE, NTE 
Perit he habe Dea tale 


SCENE IX 
Cuitra and ARJUNA 


Chitra |cloaked| 


My lord, has the cup been drained 
to the last drop? Is this, indeed, 
the end? No, when all is done some- 
thing still remains, and that is my 
last sacrifice at your feet. 

I brought from the garden of heaven 
flowers of incomparable beauty with 
which to worship you, god of my 
heart. If the rites are over, if the 
flowers have faded, let me throw them 
out of the temple [unveiling in her 
original male attire]. Now, look at 
your worshipper with gracious eyes. 

I am not beautifully perfect as the 
flowers with which I worshipped. I 
have many. flaws and blemishes. I am 

83 


84 CHITRA 


a traveller in the great world-path, 
my garments are dirty, and my feet 
are bleeding with thorns. Where should 
I achieve flower-beauty, the unsullied 
loveliness of a moment’s life? The 
gift that I proudly bring you is the 
}heart of a woman. Here have all 
pains and joys gathered, the hopes 
and fears and shames of a daughter 
of the dust; here love springs up strug- 
glinng toward immortal life. Herein 
lies an imperfection which yet is noble 
and grand. If the flower-service is 
finished, my master, accept this as 
your servant for the days to come! 

I am Chitra, the king’s daughter. 
Perhaps you will remember the day 
when a woman came to you in the 
temple of Shiva, her body loaded with 
ornaments and finery. That shame- 
less woman came to court you as 
though she were a man. You rejected 
her; you did well. My lord, I am 
that woman. She was my disguise. 


CHITRA 85 


Then by the boon of gods I obtained 
for a year the most radiant form that 
a mortal ever wore, and wearied my 
hero’s heart with the burden of that 
deceit. Most surely I am not that 
woman. 

I am Chitra. No goddess to be 
worshipped, nor yet the object of 
common pity to be brushed aside like 
a moth with indifference. If you 
deign to keep me by your side in the 
path of danger and daring, if you 
allow me to share the great duties of 
your life, then you will know my true 
self. If your babe, whom I am nourish- 
ing in my womb be born a son, I shall 
myself teach him to bea second Arjuna, 
and send him to you when the time 
comes, and then at last you will truly 
know me. To-day I can only offer you 
Chitra, the daughter of a king. | 


Arjuna 


Beloved, my life is full. 


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